Monday, July 19, 2010

Travel Update: Yellowstone National Park!

Thank you so much for the warm welcome-back! As Sal would say, you guys rock socks! It feels great to Wing-It again! :)

Is it Halloweegan yet?... How 'bout now?... How 'bout now?... Now?... Now? Oh, come on! I am SO ready for it! *sigh* A couple of days ago I organized all the old Halloweegan posts into a neat index and it only made me long for the spooky season even more.

Speaking of neatly organized indexes, I also made one for the E.A.T World challenge and it was awesome to see just how many entries there have been so far! It's never too late to participate, there are no deadlines or rules and anybody is welcome to join us and play! :)

Anyway, have you ever been to Yellowstone National Park? Mr. Wing-It and I have been there five times and it never gets old! There was one disappointing trip when most of the animals were hiding and there wasn't much to see there for a couple of seasoned Yellowstone visitors like us, but that was the only time that it wasn't as exciting as it normally is. This year we weren't lucky enough to see bears or baby moose, but it doesn't take much to keep us entertained!

This year we were entertained by this dashing raven:

Isn't he handsome? He was happy to pose for the camera in exchange for peanuts, so I took lots of pictures of his shiny awesomeness. You can click on the pictures if you want to see their larger versions (clicking on them takes you to my flickr account)

Overexposed! I think this guy has pretty much perfected the Magnum. He was such a dashing raven that I even made a little video of him being a total rock star. It's 48 seconds long, and just in case you're at work - you might want to mute it because it has a fun song playing in the background! :)

**Blogger is now being a cretin and the video might not play properly**

**OK, I had to remove the video because it's messing up the whole blog. You can still watch it here though! :) **

We also saw this pretty crane that flew away seconds after I took the picture. His wingspan was huge, I wish I could have photographed that!

UPDATE:A-K just told me that this is actually a great blue heron. Thank you A-K! :)

Look at this tiny beaver! It's a terrible picture because I had to zoom in all the way and it was windy and shaky, but I still think you can see the cuteness all the way from here! :)

There seemed to be a shortage of buffalo this year. Every time we go there we get stuck in a buffalo-jam, but this year the roads were almost buffalo-free everywhere. The few buffalo that we saw looked a little sad, I think they were ready for springtime to come and melt the snow away.

The views in the northern part of the park were beautiful! Everything was white and snowy and shimmery!

It makes me wish it was winter already! Can't get enough of Yellowstone? Wish you were there? Maybe this will help - I made a separate page with Yellowstone pictures that we have taken through the years. There are baby animals, itchy buffalo, sleepy elk, some nice sceneries, and more Yellowstone goodness!

We are in Detroit now, and luckily we are leaving tomorrow - this city a far cry from the loveliness of Yellowstone. Did I mention that I am not a big city girl? *hermit*

Thank you, Tami! I will be sharing more of our travel pictures soon! :)

A-K - Oy! Mr. Wing-It knew that, if only I would have asked him before I posted this! Thank you so much for the heads up, it did not come across as rude at all and I have updated the post. Yay for birders! :D

So fun - Yellowstone is one of those places we haven't been yet. I was kind of waiting until my kids got a little age on them...because I have a fear of getting eaten by an animal...and I don't want to choose between saving myself and my children. (I'm just kidding! Of course, I would save my children!) I do feel obsessed about seeing a buffalo in the wild. I was obsessed about wanting to see a bear at Sequoia this year, but they were sleeping... :( I'm going to start participating in E.A.T. soon!

Jes - We posted at the same time and I missed your comment! Me too! Big, smart birds are awesome! I bet you have all kinds of neat gigantor birds around the cabin! :D

Jenny - I don't blame you! Whenever we deviate from the main roads I get all paranoid and think we're going to be eaten by Yogi! :DWe have never been to Sequoia, but we want to go some day. I hope you have fun with E.A.T World!! :)

I went to Yellowstone once as a kid and I remember loving it. I definitely want to return one day. It's interesting - I'm always clamoring to go visit far-off places like Morocco and India but I tend to forget my own country! I'll have to get on that…

I may have traveled a fair amount in Europe, but you have me beat for sure in US travel! I've never been to Yellowstone (no surprise there; I'm really not an outdoorsy girl at all), but I do love seeing photos of beautiful creatures! Thank you for sharing and have a safe journey home!

Jennifer - YAY, the video worked! I hope you can go back to Yellowstone some day. It should be a completely different experience for you as an adult! I would love to travel around the world too, but my plane phobia kind of gets in the way! :D

HayMarket8 - It's so nice to look at travel photos and relive a trip! I wish we would have filmed more of it, but I guess there's always next time!

Andrea - We have *almost* gone to Glacier a couple of times, but for some reason or another it hasn't worked out. Maybe you guys can hit Yellowstone on your way back? If it makes you feel any better, Yellowstone would have been insanely crowded in July. It would have been the national park version of Woodman's supermarket! :D

Vegyogini - You went to France and got your hair cut like Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina... you win! :PI'm glad you enjoyed the pictures. I am not really an outdoorsy girl either, and we spend most of our time in Yellowstone in the car, which is probably the bigest farce ever! :)

So much animal adorableness! I've never been to Yellowstone but sure would love to go now. And I know Detroit isn't the most beautiful of places, but you did make me feel nostalgic for my university days in Windsor (just across the river in Canada--literally, walking distance!) :)

Welcome to Wing It Vegan! I am River and this blog is where I keep track of my favorite recipes. Hopefully you will find some new favorites here as well! Please, don't run away scared if you're not vegan! I promise I won't throw rotten beets or snarky judgments at you. MORE